


Pretty Strangers

by lethargicshadowlover



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Based off a song, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Fluff, Lots of Angst, Love, Protection, Swearing, Unrequited Love, but it'll definitely be a few chapters, don't know how long this will be, mature language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 01:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7246825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lethargicshadowlover/pseuds/lethargicshadowlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chat's been searching for month in hope to see her after a moment which made his world fall to pieces. Once everything's fallen apart, though he finally finds her, will they be able to put the past behind them and repair the rough edges one single night left behind?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pretty Strangers

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I wrote this originally as a warm up for the next chapter of 'Muddled' (which is going to be riddled with angst) and did so while listening to one of my favourite guilty pleasure songs: "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits. Check it out if you haven't heard it before.  
> There are some lyric crossovers into the dialogue as this is based off some of the songs words. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy it <3

> _**"** You can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold. You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold... **"**_
> 
> * * *
> 
>  

Through the streets he trudged. Cats were meant to be light on their feet, ready to pounce, but that couldn’t be said for this cat. His footing was painfully heavy through Paris’ slippery wet streets, and his clumsiness and bad luck had taken charge of his spindly legs on more than one occasion. Thrice he’d found himself fallen to the curb in a puddle, staring back—with the aid of the light of many a window—at the face of someone he didn’t recognise.

A hero, they said.

_A hero, my ass._

Before, going days without seeing her brought a strange and sickening feeling to the pit of his stomach, but now Chat Noir had grown too close towards the point of desperation. It had been months; three months, six days and two hours to be exact. That was way too long for him to be without his Ladybug.

Every day he woke up and went about his daily business, bottling up his upset and fear, wearing an almost permanent look of melancholy that few people could lift and most people only added to. But the moment he left his daily routine, and in any spare time he could grab he was transformed and out. Out into the world.

He dashed about the streets with a true sense of purpose, but no clear way of reaching his goal. Around every corner, on top of every building…she wasn’t there. Every other night he ascended the Eiffel Tower, each trip breaking his record time of reaching the spot they had often looked over the city and, without fail, she was never there as he’d hoped.

It made the drop from up there to the floor look especially long, and all the more inviting.

Still, he never gave up; not fully. Here he was, exasperated and lifeless in himself, letting sadness and upset engulf him with their blanket of horrible darkness, but that slither of hope slipped through it all. He’d joked with Plagg about it only recently: “If it weren’t for my stubborn hope I reckon I’d have been akumatised by now…”

Plagg hadn’t found it funny and neither had he, but he’d still let out a bitter and painful laugh. It stung his throat.

She didn’t want him to find her, he knew that for a fact, and she’d done a damn good job of hiding herself away these past three months, six days and two hours. He could imagine her, so vividly imagine her going out of her way to avoid him; to disappear from the radar effortlessly. Not that would be an issue for someone as spectacularly smart as her.

But it would be now of all times that it was easiest. When Chat closed his eyes, he could see her transform into the blur of the civilian form he was yet to discover. Right now, as darkness enveloped Paris and night took over, he knew that civilian Ladybug would be revelling in the fact that he certainly wouldn’t be able to find her like that.

The rain grew heavier as he shuffled into a darkened alleyway, hoping to shield himself from the rain. It hadn’t bothered him before, but now his body was starting to go rigid from the freezing cold weather winter brought with it.

Fortunately nobody was around him. Easily that moment could’ve been ceased to transform and run home to the warmth of his huge bedroom, but instead he relished this moment without people around him for another reason.

He could cry.

As Chat Noir he was a ‘hero’. He saved people, he flirted, he made puns so horrific sometimes he felt like he ought to hit himself for them but still he laughed and smirked his way through it all. As Chat Noir he was a bringer of peace and happiness to the people he protected. Even if these days he didn’t do all that much protecting, he was still a model little boys would smile at.

And he had to smile back. That was his job; smile, save the world, smile, and restore people’s happiness. Crying played no part in the chaotic world he’d been thrown into, and he most certainly couldn’t let the people of Paris see him cry. Where else could his reputation go then but downhill?

Tears felt good to let out finally. Even better was the feeling of warm liquid rushing down his icy cheeks. For a moment Chat felt calm but only until he began to mindlessly whistle the love song he’d listened to a million times since she’d disappeared. After that, the streams of sadness from his eyes only intensified, and his face crinkled with pain as he looked up at the moon as it rose higher and higher into the sky.

 _Staring at a bright light might brighten my spirits_ , he thought innocently. _Or at least take my mind off of her._

His innocent logic might’ve worked. Might’ve if, in the very moment that followed, a silhouette didn’t dash across the moon and snap him out of his thoughts. Instinctively he whipped his head, silently following the movements of the shadow with his big, bright eyes.

With a step forward he noticed they’d come to a halt, then they precariously positioned themselves on the rail of the balcony of an empty apartment, back facing the puddles of darkness Chat resided in.

Another step and it all became clear. The lamp below where the figure resided shone the truth of the situation up and into his vision. A pair of hands eased up and covered their face, tucking blue-black hair carefully behind their ear as they did so.

Chat felt his heart shatter and be fixed simultaneously as he looked up at the silhouette in awe.

A shimmer of red flickered through the night, and it was the brightest light of all.

Easing out of the shadows cautiously, Chat stepped into the glowing span of a convenient streetlight beneath where she sat, watching as she swung her legs back and forth like a little girl waiting for her mummy on a kindergarten chair.

In the spitting rain her raven hair appeared darker, flickering from it’s two ponytail’s messily in the wind. The wetness made her skin shine so brilliantly, and left Chat basking in the awe of her incredible beauty. Boy, did she look beautiful, and more so than the young man remembered. Time had erased his memory somewhat over the last few months, but now it all flooded back with more remarkable torrents of surprise bliss.

When she twisted around to face the road, he couldn’t help but stare, glad for the moment that she hadn’t spotted him below. Now, like this he could admire her every feature: the elegant curve of her neck, the fabric of her suit tightly hugging her figure, the line that etched along her calf of pure muscle.

At first he wondered why he couldn’t see her eyes glimmer in the darkness before he saw the way she reached up her hands, rubbing her eyes and trembling with hitching breaths. A soft whimper floated down every few seconds and sent a shudder through his already broken body.

Chat let out a deep sigh, just soft enough to not attract any attention, and leant against the streetlight he was beside. Arms crossed and one foot pressed against the metal, he smirked as he always did as he spoke.

“You and me, patrolling the streets: how about it?”

Ladybug jumped a little, turning to look at him as if he were a stranger. Her eyes were bright and bloodshot, baring the confusion of his presence above anything else. Slowly her face contorted slightly as she examined him and the way his usual pompous and excitable demeanour resonated from him.

Her first instinct was to run. Bolting away, ignoring his words and forgetting any chance of interacting felt like the easiest and quickest path out of the flood of feelings that swarmed her head. It took the time for her hands to drop to her sides and clasp the hand rails for her to spot it—the look in his eyes behind the cheeky look and the arrogance, the sadness that spat out at her and stung too much for her to get up and leave him all alone.

Sensibly she stayed put and continued to swing her legs. “You nearly gave mea heart attack, Chat. You shouldn’t go around shouting up at people like that,” she said, a soft melancholy tone trailing behind every word. “It’s nightime. I could’ve fallen down.”

“I would’ve caught you if you had.”

“Why are you here?” Her voice was soft, but held a clear sharp edge. She sounded angry, aggravated by the presence of her partner, but her heart disagreed. It ached to hear her own word fall from her lips.

Chat uncrossed his arms, grabbing the lamp post and swinging slightly as he hung there. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” he chuckled softly. “Desperately, actually. It’s been hell without you telling me what to do.” He thought he saw her smile for a second, but when he looked closer she remained unchanged. “I’m confused, my lady. I’m lost and _boy_  am I broken without you beside me.”

“Don’t be stupid, Chat…”

“Three months without a word from you and you expect me not to be?” laughed out Chat, frowning with pained concern up at her. “What would I do without you if an akuma showed up out of the blue? I can’t sort them out on my own.”

She sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I wouldn’t abandon you.”

“We can’t just work along side each other, Ladybug,” he said firmly, very seriously and much unlike the man Ladybug thought she knew. “We need to work _together_  or we’re completely fucked. Or do you not trust me to help?”

“It’s not like that, Chat,” sighed the young woman. Her hands rubbed her thighs nervously as she looked swivelled her body away and planted her feet firmly on the balcony. “I can capture akumas just fine without you though—I’ve done it a few times these last few months.”

At that his face fell, not needing words to paint the picture of the pain in his eyes. Two words and he was shattered to a million pieces, his light blowing that exact moment and leaving him stranded in the dark.

Ladybug almost reached out as her lips parted in surprise when she saw his body tense. “I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want you there but…” She stalled and nipped at her fingernails through her suit. “You need to stay safe.”

“I really don’t get you,” he said, grinning humourlessly. “I don’t get it at all, my Lady—surely we’re safer together, aren’t we? Without you, you know I’ll get myself killed!”

He stood, light reflecting off the glowing green glaze that covered his eyes, mouth contorted into a skeptical smile. Rain hurried down the leather that clung to his body and drowned his hair a little more every second. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Ladybug longed to see whatever messy urchin resided behind that mask; the boy that she inflicted so many negative emotions on without intention.

“You don’t have to stop being Chat Noir, but you don’t need me. Just forget about me.”

“Forget about you?” he spat. “You’re kidding right. That’s utterly im-paws-ible.”

Before he could spot her slight smile she turned her back to him. “Now’s not the time for that, Chat.” Slowly she shook her head, rubbing the top of her arm gently before pulling out her yo-yo and taking a single step.

“Wait!”

She half expected him to be right up in her face when she spun around, but found him still in the circle of weak light that cloaked the floor, one arm reached out to her. “Fuck it.” It fell limply as he rubbed the back of his neck, the young man finally losing the last of his positivity and arrogance as it hit his side. “Ever since we met I suppose I knew this would happen _at some point_. I thought you’d seen past this…this stupid idea that you can’t be the Ladybug we know you to be.”

Ladybug shuffled towards the edge of the overhang and gripped the hand rail. “That’s not it, Chat—”

“Then what is it?” he cried, his grief clearly consuming him and raising his pitch insanely. “What the hell is it? Is it how I feel about you, because, my lady, I can assure you that hasn’t gone away. I’m not sure it would if I forced it.”

“Look, Chat, we can’t—”

Desperation kicked in, leading him to climb up the pole and jump across towards her. He stopped just in front of her, his face a mere half metre from hers. “Why can’t we?” His hands raised, fingers splayed and rigid as he shook them in frustration. “After _everything_  you mean you can just look at me and feel nothing at all? You can’t!”

She was mute at his gaze, unable to form a single word under the stare beating down on her. The things she wanted to tell him were limitless but impossible: how amazing he was to know and work with, how stunning and selfless a partner he was, how perfect he was in mind and body…

Of course she didn’t feel nothing—she felt everything at once when she looked at him—but she couldn’t do it. Even if she could say it, letting out those things would only bring so much more pain to their world. 

Chat stepped forward and with his dripping wet hand ran his thumb across her cheekbone to flick aside a raindrop. She felt a warmth dash across her face at his touch, and looked up into an expression of pure longing.

“We had something, didn’t we?” he pleaded at a low and gentle whisper. “It was just that the time was wrong.”

It stung terribly as the memory rushed back for the hundredth time, just as vivid and hurtful as it always had been.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed it. There will definitely be a couple more chapters, but I'm unsure how many as of yet. Please let me know what you think in the comments as I adore getting feedback :)  
> Thank you so much and have a lovely day!!


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